Cumberland Area Housing Market Improving

Things are not always as bleak as they seem. That was the message from Dr. Elliot Eisenberg, Senior Economist, Housing Policy Research with the National Association of Home Builders when he appeared on Tuesday’s WCBC’s “Dave Norman Show”. A reader commentary from Eisenberg appeared in Monday’s edition of the Cumberland Times News highlighting the improving housing market in the Cumberland area. The National Association recently unveiled an index that tracks housing markets on the mend. Among these areas is the Cumberland, Md.–West Virginia metropolitan statistical area. The health of the Cumberland housing market is due to its position as a very large regional healthcare center, the presence of Frostburg State University and Allegany College of Maryland, the CSX Locomotive Maintenance Facility and the presence of several prisons, including a new maximum security prison. Cumberland also benefits from several large call centers and the large Hunter-Douglas fabrication plant where custom energy efficient window treatments are made. Eisenberg said decades of losing major manufacturers have left many locals with the idea that Cumberland is no longer economically viable. He says that isn’t the case at all…